A Contrastive Study Of Two Translational Versions Of Andersen's Fairy Tales From The Perspective Of Skopostheory

In the history of traditional translational study, translating is merely regarded as a linguistic translation between languages, and it holds that the original version is the absolute standard of the translational one. The Skopostheory, which is developed from the translational theory of the Functionalism in German, points out that translational action is a kind of communicative action with clear purposes. Different translational strategies and methods should be conditioned by different purposes and target readers, and overall translational purposes determine translational strategies. In the process of translation, text translation is synthetically restricted by many factors. To evaluate a translational version, it is important to check whether the translational version realize the translational purposes fully. This is what the Skopostheory holds.This thesis takes the Skopostheory of Functionalism as the basic theory, and the two translational versions of Andersen's Fairy Tales, one is translated by Zhao Jingshen of the period of the May Fourth Movement and another by Ye Junjian of the Modern Times, as the cases to study the linguistic translation from the perspective of the Skopostheory. This thesis is intended to explore the strategies employed by the two translators in the translation and transference of linguistic items and rhetoric expressions. It indicates that,in the process of translating, translators adopt different translational strategies on the basis of different translational purposes to achieve different translational styles and effects. Generally speaking, the two translational versions have achieved their translational purposes and met the need of different readers. They are all accepted by the readers of different times.There are 28 examples chosen from the two translational versions and they are contrasted and analyzed in detail in this thesis. The findings are as following:A. Under the influence of historical and cultural background, there are some differences between translators'purposes. B. Because of different purposes, translators use different translational strategies in the process of translating, so there are a lot of differences between translating lexicons including specific words, forms of address and popular words, short and long sentences, and rhetoric expressions.C. The Skopostheory has a deep influence on translational actions and guide translators'translational actions.In short, in evaluating a translational text, it is inadequate to take only linguistic items into consideration. Whether the translational purposes are fully realized, whether the translational version is in accordance with the historical and cultural background and whether it is accepted by readers of the times should be paid great attention to as to make a more comprehensive and reasonable evaluation.